Origin of the Word Pyramid

Date: 07/05/99 at 23:02:44
From: karen
Subject: A pyramid versus the pyramids: which came first?
I am wondering about a sort of chicken or the egg question. Were the
pyramids (like those in Egypt) named after the geometric figure the
pyramid or vice-versa?

Date: 07/06/99 at 08:26:09
From: Doctor Rick
Subject: Re: A pyramid versus the pyramids: which came first?
Hi, Karen.
An old-fashioned paper Encyclopedia Brittanica is still good for
something like this. I quote from the 1970 edition:
"The ancient Egyptian term for pyramid is _mer_. The English word
pyramid comes from the Greek _pyramid_, plural _pyramides_, a word of
doubtful etymology that was thought to have been derived from the
ancient Egyptian _per-em-us_, a term used in a mathematical papyrus to
denote the vertical height of a pyramid. A purely Greek word _pyramis_
means "wheaten cake," and a vague resemblance in shape may have
prompted early Greeks to use it as a facetious designation of the
celebrated Egyptian monuments."
So the origin of the term is not entirely clear (as is true of most
such ancient words and concepts). Even so, it definitely appears that
the Egyptian pyramids were the first to bear this name, and the
geometric concept of a pyramid must have been named after these
particular examples of a right square pyramid.
- Doctor Rick, The Math Forum
http://mathforum.org/dr.math/